Transcoding and conferencing sessions may occur over packet-based networks which utilize, e.g., Voice over Packet (“VoP”), Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”), and may allow for the collaboration of video, audio and data. These sessions are executed by processors, such as digital signal processors (“DSPs”), which create, modify and terminate media streams communicated to devices participating in the sessions. These DSPs can be arranged as DSP farms to be used as resources for end-user devices. The VoIP network may also include telephony trunks for purposes of communicating with the Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”). The end-user devices which use the resources of the VoIP network are generally Internet Protocol (“IP”) devices. It is generally advantageous for the IP devices provided on the VoIP Network to utilize the resources which are located closest to them, i.e., these requiring the least time to transmit data packets therebetween, so as to minimize latency and possible jitter of such data packets.
Conventional systems and methods determine the closest resources to the respective IP devices by a manual creation of a static list of the locations of all IP devices and resources in the network. However, such conventional techniques are time consuming and tedious since there can be an extremely large number of IP devices and resources. In addition, if one or more of the IP devices or resources are moved to a different location, all relevant entities must be updated.